By Stanley Kunitz
I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned campsites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.
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Even though vacation is over, I had a bit of a slacker day with Daniel -- who again slept till nearly noon, allowing me to get done the things I HAD to get done in the morning. Then we went to Bagel City for lunch and to get bagels for the rest of the week, and then we came home and watched Deep Space Nine's "The Way of the Warrior" and "The Visitor," having snuck in most of the third season's highlights over the past couple of days.
I worked on my Silly Tarot Project (which is nearly finished) while watching the episodes; meanwhile Adam got home late because someone set something on fire at tech and they had to clean up. We had ravioli for dinner and watched the Disney A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey (and Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, and all the other reasons I really watched it) since Paul agreed we should see it before we'd forgotten the holiday season. In that spirit, here are some more photos from the US Botanic Garden's winter displays:
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